Not much marijuana at pot-smokers’ protest

The only grass visible at City Hall park in Red Deer on Monday was the newly sprouting lawn.

Around 60 people gathered for a pot protest, but there was only the slightest whiff of marijuana in the air at 4:20 p.m., the crucial moment of the event.

The association of the 4:20 time and marijuana is thought to date back to the 1970s, when some California teenagers would gather to smoke pot after finishing detention at 4:20 p.m.

Since then, the date April 20 — or 4/20 — has become a day across the planet where pot smokers light up a joint to show their support for marijuana becoming decriminalized or legalized.

Andy Hamdan was at the event in Red Deer puffing away on his hookah, a water pipe popular in the Middle East.

But rather than dope in his pipe, he had apple-flavoured tobacco. Hamdan moved to Canada from Beirut, Lebanon, around 30 years ago and had his family here. He said he goes to the 4:20 event every year.